


A Fairytale Of A Boy Named Neal

by happy_phantom



Category: White Collar
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Spoilers for season 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-22
Updated: 2015-02-22
Packaged: 2018-03-14 13:37:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3412607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happy_phantom/pseuds/happy_phantom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What is meant to be, it always finds a way...</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Fairytale Of A Boy Named Neal

**Author's Note:**

> One-shot about...read and find out (please keep in mind that this is fanfiction, ok?)
> 
> Thanks to Ayam for being the best beta I can have! All mistakes are mine!

Once upon a time there was a boy named Neal. Many boys have that name but this one was special. You can say that everyone is special –and you’re right, so let me tell you that he was especially special. Otherwise we wouldn’t tell his story. Shall we begin?

A long, long, long time before a boy named Neal was born – but during the time when there was still hope that he would appear one day and change the life of two people deeply in love, when the couple smiled and joked rather than cried after months of fruitless attempts – his dad – an FBI agent – got the case of a forger. Well, not only a forger, but…hmm, sometimes words fail you when you want to capture and label the complexity of the world, so maybe ‘conman’ would be a better description – but you would have to decide where to put the stress – on ‘con’ or on ‘man,’ so let’s leave it for now and gave him the nickname ‘James Bonds’ (yes, the boy’s dad had a strange sense of humor). This case was about to change the life of the boy’s dad – but nobody knew that back then. Of course – the boy’s dad was an excellent agent (I didn’t tell you that, did I? – yes, he was) and he caught the forger and sent him to prison.

A long, long time before the boy named Neal was born – but during the time when the hope of having him disappeared and was replaced by resignation and the struggle to accept the fact of not having him or any other babies – the forger escaped the prison. Do you know why? To find and save the love of his life, a lovely young woman named Kate. I’ll tell you something in secret – there is no happy ending here – she died a violent death – I’ll spare you the details – and left our forger heartbroken, but let’s not focus on sad stories here. The forger was caught again and sent to prison again. Yes, it was the boy’s dad who did that. Again. Second time in a row. But the forger had a plan – he suggested a work release so he wouldn’t have to stay in prison (and they’re not very romantic there, so he would have to start his sentence all over again) but instead have an anklet to trace his movements. He suggested that perhaps he could help the agent with a particularly difficult case he was working on. The boy’s dad and the forger solved the first case and many, many cases after the first one. And the forger became a CI – ‘criminal informant’. Someone would say ‘confidential informant’ – neither criminal nor confidential were the best names – so let’s stay with the abbreviation, shall we?

A long time before the boy named Neal was born – but during a time when seeing babies didn’t make the couple cry and when they had come to terms with the fact that there wouldn’t be a child in their life, the forger developed a unique relationship with the boy’s father.  He  was the forger’s handler  – what is a handler? by definition a person who would ‘handle’ his CI – but it’s far more complicated – you can’t just ‘handle’ a human being the way you handle baggage, stress or daily chores). Let’s just say that the boy’s dad handled his CI with increasing care (and I would say brotherly or fatherly love) and the forger handled his handler pretty well too. They went through a lot together– good adventures, bad experiences, losses, gains and near-misses. But their partnership is a theme for another story.

When the boy named Neal wasn’t yet born but was already in his mummy’s tummy well-hidden (so well that even his mummy didn’t know about him), the forger had been kidnapped (well, they didn’t know at first if he was kidnapped or fled – but the boy’s dad figured it out – he was an excellent agent, I told you that) and the forger was introduced into a very dangerous circle – a gang of thieves and vicious men called Pink Panthers. In order to regain his freedom (so he could get rid of the anklet and travel around the world – or even NY – I didn’t tell you, that with the anklet he couldn’t do that, did I? Sorry. I must have forgotten), the forger promised the FBI to bring the gang to justice. No matter what. He did that. And then – sadly, he was gone, leaving everyone in grief that can’t be described. But leaving everyone else safe and sound, which was his main concern.

When the boy named Neal was born, his dad was torn between the happiness of having a new son and bone-deep sorrow of having lost someone. The boy didn’t see that but his dad’s eyes often filled up with tears and sometimes he locked himself in the bathroom to cry silently. The boy’s dad was slowly accepting what had happened but some days were tougher than others. The wound caused by the loss was deep but was healing.

When the boy named Neal was almost one year old, his dad brought him a gift – a plushy Eiffel Tower. The boy didn’t know what it was but played with it because it made his dad smile. He didn’t know that his dad went overseas to search for somebody. And because he was such a good FBI agent, he found the person he was looking for. Later there were even more gifts for the boy – violet candies from a small shop in Madrid, comic books with adventures of Tin-Tin from a shop in Brussels, a family of plushy seals from Oslo, a box of chocolate from Zurich. The boy’s dad travelled quite often and the boy suspected (he was a son of a FBI agent after all), that it wasn’t only to attend some workshop or assist on a case as the boy had been told.

When the boy named Neal was almost four years old, a strange man came to his house (it wasn’t the first time the boy met some strange friends of his parents – he even got an old teddy bear from a short bold guy who told him that his name was Teddy but was often called Mozzie by his dad and mom). Neal didn’t know the new strange man but apparently his dad and even his mummy knew him very well. Of course, with the courage and curiosity of a 4-year old, he asked him who he was.

“I knew your father before you were born,” was the strange man’s answer.

“Do you wolk fol the FBI too?”

“Neal, give Uncle George a break. Let’s play with the crayons you got” the boy’s mum told him. Neal didn’t like crayons – drawing, painting wasn’t his favorite stuff to do. He didn’t know why his lack of artistic talent made his dad very happy. His dad seemed more interested in teaching him to throw and catch a ball, anyway.

When the boy named Neal was almost five years old, the strange man (who wasn’t that strange anymore because he visited the boy’s house quite often with a lady called Aunt Sara) brought a bundle to his house. Neal didn’t like it – the baby didn’t talk, didn’t play with him and the worst of it – it was a girl. The boy didn’t know that Uncle George and Aunt Sara had a long argument about the girl’s name – but it was Aunt Sara who had chosen her name.

“I know how much she meant to you. I know that she was a promise of a better life. Besides, I won’t name her Ellen.” And the name was chosen

When a boy named Neal was almost eight years old, he promised himself not to talk to any girls ever – especially Uncle George’s and Aunt’s Sara little girl who followed him, tried to play with him and seemed more than happy around him. She was a pest. 

When the boy named Neal was twenty four (and wasn’t a boy anymore) he fell in love. Badly. He had just graduated from Harvard Law School and gotten a job at the Manhattan DA’s office. She was a lovely girl who worked as an art restorer at the MET and was about to graduate from Art School. He didn’t think of her as a pest any more. Her name was Kate and she was the daughter of Uncle George and Aunt Sara. So much for making promises about not talking to girls. It made his parents and Kate’s parents very happy. You know why, don’t you?

Life had made a full circle. What couldn’t happen in one life, happened in another.

Neal married Kate.

And the fairytale ends (or maybe begins) here.

**Author's Note:**

> What do you think? Kudos? Reviews?


End file.
